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Annual EHCP Review Process
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School Games Update
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Ofsted Briefing – EYFS
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Governor Conference November 2024
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THRIVE Approach
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TEAM TEACH Interest
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SEND Surveys
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Halton Health Improvement Team
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PSHE
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SEND Sufficiency
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INVISION 360
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Inclusive Books for Children Free Book Box offer!
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Short story competition
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Build your own villain
Annual EHCP Review Process
From September onwards, we are keen to strengthen the Annual Review Process, ensuring that we are supporting our young people as they prepare for adulthood. We are therefore slightly amending the annual review paperwork which will be available on the Local Offer from next week. The paperwork now includes “Transition Team” on the list of possible attendees.
This is just a polite reminder to please invite the Transition Team to all Annual Reviews from Year 9 onwards, for those young people who meet the criteria. The team may not be able to attend in all cases, but they will attend wherever they deem it appropriate.
Thank you for your support.
You can contact the Transition team at Transition.Team@halton.gov.uk
School Games Update
A special CONGRATULATIONS to Lunts Heath Primary School, Beechwood Primary School and Gorsewood Primary School who have today achieved their PLATINUM School Games Mark! This is awarded to schools who have obtained Gold for five consecutive years showing huge commitment to both their pupil’s physical activity and physical literacy levels as well as their engagement in competitive and noncompetitive events throughout the academic year, ensuring every child can engage and find their own pathway into physical activity. This is a massive achievement so congratulations to the three schools on an amazing year, massive achievement.
If you have yet to start your application, please think about starting it soon to ensure any validation can be done before we finish for summer.
Your School Games – Your School Games
To complete your school games mark application, you must have completed the Inclusive Health Check found on your dashboard as well as the Girls Football Equal Access Survey (EAS) that was sent to you all individually recently. If you can’t find your link to the EAS let me know and I can resend it. Annoyingly the EAS closes on FRIDAY 28th JUNE, which is before the deadline for the School Games Mark so please ensure this is done within the next week if you are applying for the School Games Mark.
Congratulations to Lunts Heath, Beechwood and Gorsewood again, who are our first validated schools on achieving Platinum!
Please see attached
Please see attached
Any questions let me know,
Joe Obiro | joe.obiro@halton.gov.uk | Halton School Games Organiser | 07999232231|Twitter: @Halton_sg
Ofsted Briefing – EYFS
15th July 2024
10am-11am
@ DBCL Stadium
School Improvement Halton have invited Tim Vaughan HMI to talk about Ofsted and EYFS
During the briefing Tim will look at all stakeholder responsibilities and how this forms judgements around EYFS during inspections.
Tim Vaughan, HMI, maintained schools and academies
Tim holds qualified teacher status and previously worked in leadership roles in maintained nursery schools, primary schools and children’s centres. He held a senior role for a local authority and worked as an adviser for the Department for Education. He has extensive experience of inspection, investigation and survey work across nursery, infant and primary schools, children’s centres, teacher training and early years. Tim contributes to the training of inspectors. Tim holds a BEd (Hons) and a Master’s in Early Childhood Education with Care. He is qualified at level 7 in investigative practice. Tim qualified as a headteacher and is trained in leadership development. He has advised nationally on this topic and has taught about leadership at postgraduate level.
Further information please contact mike.stapleton-chambers@halton.gov.uk
To Book: https://forms.office.com/e/6zrWuGNazj
Governor Conference November 2024
Please see attached flyer.
THRIVE Approach
It is great to see 17 delegates from 11 Halton Schools have taken up Thrive Licensed Childhood Practitioner Training. Training started last Friday, with 5 more starting in July.
Adolescent Licensed Practitioner training is due to start next week, and we have 5 confirmed delegates If you are interested in getting the next wave, please contact Jennie Hogan – jennie.hogan@thriveapproach.com or attentively myself.
We are offering this to all settings over the next year and hope all will take it up. Also, please feel free to make contact if you want to know what it is all about!
SEND Surveys
Here are two surveys which are currently open: one for children and young people and another for parents and carers. Both surveys should take no longer than ten minutes to complete.
The closing date for the surveys is Sunday 30 June 2024.
Please promote these surveys through your newsletters, etc, and as widely as possible with the children, young people and families that you work with who access SEND services in Halton.
The links to both surveys with the QR Codes are available on the Halton Local Offer Useful Information & Documents | Local Offer (haltonchildrenstrust.co.uk)
Parent/Carer Survey: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/HaltonSEND
Child/Young Person Survey: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/HaltonSENDcyp
Halton Health Improvement Team
The health improvement team are really keen to work with all schools across Halton and looking to develop & enhance their offers around RSE, Health Education and risk-taking behaviours. If you want to find out more, please email healthy.schools@halton.gov.uk or rebekah.walsh@halton.gov.uk
To help with this, there are two areas they need to find out more information about (links below). I fully appreciate there are a few survey links in this update, but hopefully they won’t take too long and will only go to strengthen the support on offer across the LA.
PSHE
The first survey is aimed at all secondary school staff and aims to capture the current provision for PSHE delivery and training to help determine the need for training and support with PSHE. We would like responses from all secondary schools, including specialist provision. We would like to capture the needs from the perspective of all staff involved in PSHE delivery, not just from the PSHE co-ordinator. It should take 5 minutes to complete.
https://online1.snapsurveys.com/RSEandHealth
Vaping, Tobacco, Alcohol, Knives
These surveys are about the sale and use of vapes and other age-restricted products in Halton. These surveys have been open since April, and they have had responses from some schools. We would like to capture responses from pupils and staff at all schools.
There is a survey for pupils in Year 6 to Year 11 here: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/HBCsupupils (5 – 10 minutes to complete)
And one for all school staff here: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/HBCsustaff (5 minutes to complete)
SEND Sufficiency
Halton recently commissioned SEND Projection data from MIME Analytics. The report provides accurate forecasting information, right up until 2039. The data allows us to see growth trends in all types of SEND across all age ranges and sectors.
The data projects a large increase in our EHCP cohort size over the next 15 years. Analysis of our data allowed us to identify the three key growth factors:
Halton is issuing a large number of new EHCPs. Over the past few years, Halton has been issuing EHCPs at a faster than average rate, with more than one in every 200 under 25 year olds issued with a new EHCP every year. In the most recent available data, Halton has the 15th highest EHCP issuing rate of all local authorities in England.
This rate of issuing EHCPs is largely driven by the high and growing rate of requests for EHCP assessments in Halton. As of January 2023, the assessment request rate was the 6th highest in England.
The current younger EHCP cohorts are much larger than older ones would have been at their age. As of January 2023, under 5s make up one in 16 of our EHCP cohort, compared to around one in 24 across England
This is the most accurate forecasting information we have ever had, which puts us in a strong position to effectively plan our SEND sufficiency for the next 5 years.
We are now coproducing our SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2025-2030, ready for publication by January 2025. At that time, we will also launch our Halton Sufficiency Board. We are currently convening a Sufficiency working group and are very keen for Headteachers and SENDCo’s to be involved. If you would like to be part of the working group, please contact Charlotte Finch by email at charlotte.finch@halton.gov.uk, to express your interest, using the subject line SEND Sufficiency.
INVISION 360
As part of our drive towards improving the quality of Education, Health and Care Plans, Halton has now launched Invision 360, an award-winning quality assurance tool. Invision 360 ensures that all Education, Health and Care Plans are thoroughly audited by a multi-agency team, before finally being signed off and issued. Invision 360 is well-regarded by Local Authority SEND Services, the DfE and Ofsted and we are optimistic that its introduction will significantly improve the quality of our own Education, Health and Care Plans.
News/Articles
Record number of children with EHCPs
The number of children and young people in England requiring support for special educational needs and disabilities has increased sharply according to new data. Local authorities issued 84,400 education, health and care plans (EHCPs) last year, according to figures released by the Department for Education, a 26 per cent increase compared with 2022. Nearly one in 19 children in England aged between five and 15 now have an EHCP. Cllr Louise Gittins, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board said: “Councils want to be able to provide the very best support to children with special educational needs and their families. However, these record figures are a reminder of the huge pressure councils are under, with the number of EHCPs increasing every year since they were introduced in 2014.”
Guardian: Record 576,000 pupils have special needs support plan in England
Mental health linked to school absence
Children’s mental health and anxiety are the biggest drivers behind the sustained rise in school absences since the Covid pandemic, according to headteachers. Nearly nine out of 10 secondary school leaders – including attendance officers tasked with tackling absences – said there had been a marked increase in pupils missing school over the past two years because of mental health issues.
Guardian: Mental health is main cause of rising absences in England, say headteachers
Demands on teachers and GPs
A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that a third of schools and almost half of GP surgeries have set up food banks with almost 25 per cent of NHS primary staff and 40 per cent of teachers saying that they have used their own money to help pupils and patients.
Guardian: Teachers and GPs ‘staggering’ under extra demands caused by poverty in Great Britain
Councils braced for £1bn shortfall in special education needs
Councils in England expect to face a shortfall of almost £1bn in special needs budgets this year. Of the 153 councils contacted by the BBC, 113 responded to a request for their financial forecasts for this year. Since 2019, the accumulated deficit in England for Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (Send) has reached £3.2bn, according to the County Council Network. Overall, the picture is of rising demand, and at the same time growing pressure on council budgets. Official statistics published this month show almost 600,000 children and young people now have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in England, meaning councils have a legal duty to meet the child or young person’s needs. Last year saw a 26% year-on-year increase in the number of new plans issued across England.
BBC News
Children facing loss of time and space for play at state schools
Teachers, unions and academics have warned that children are facing a loss of space and time for play in school. A combination of factors is said to be eating into the time children spend outside, posing serious implications for their wellbeing and mental health.
Guardian: Children facing loss of time and space for play at state schools
Inclusive Books for Children Free Book Box offer!
The Charity Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) are introducing the IBC Book Box, their brand-new, UK-wide book gifting initiative aimed at increasing access to free inclusive books for the children who need them most.
Every month from September 2024, they will be giving a box of 100 engaging and high-quality inclusive children’s books to an eligible school or community library within the UK.
Who can apply?
- State primary schools
- Community libraries
Only one application is allowed per school or library. Applications must also be made by a lead or senior member of staff.
When?
The application window is open now and closes at 23:59 BST on Wednesday 10 July 2024.
Find out more about IBC: IBC Book Box (for primary schools and community libraries) | IBC (inclusivebooksforchildren.org)
To apply for a free book box: IBC Book Box (google.com)
Short story competition
Please see attached for more information.
Build your own villain
Please see attached for more information